5 for me. Some hit (the stannis scene) but a lot of misses : the Faith Militant being over violent biggots goes against everything the High Sparrow represents and it's not subtle at all (the image of Lancel rising up with is face tatoo was cringe inducing). The sand snakes introduction broke my heart a little, that Obara speech came out of nowhere and seemed so forced. Who was she speaking to anyway? Dorne is one of my favorite place, especially because of Doran and Arianne and just the overall atmosphere of the place. We get none of that here, juste some REVENGE, how original. And just from a tv show stand points thoses characters don't seem to bring a whole lot, I'm afraid they will be very poorly received, god they seem to screw up Dorne so much... The final showdown failed to bring tension because it came out of nowhere. See, I'd be down to see Barristan fight and even die if it was even remotely relevant to the plot and his character. Here it felt so apart from the rest of it. Sure the Harpys have been introduced, but the whiole scene feels like one big segue, the Barristan adventures or something. No doubt it iwill have some consequences later, but as it stands now it doesn't live up to its potential I feel. I don't know if it's fair to attribute all of that to the new writer. But assuming it is, then I must say the guy seems to be talented, but overall shows a baffling lack of comprehension of the source material.
